Goodwill Industries of Kentucky’s Reintegrating Individuals Successfully Every Day (RISE) program was highlighted during Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s recent press conference regarding digital inclusion efforts.
To battle digital inequity – which has been amplified in recent months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a subsequent economic recession and protests surrounding racial injustice – in certain Louisville neighborhoods, Mayor Fischer announced the city is expanding free Wi-Fi service to the Russell neighborhood, where 80 percent of households don’t have internet access.
Chief of Civic Innovation and Technology Grace Simrall discussed the project and its many partners further, which included Goodwill and a success story from our RISE program. Simrall told a short story of a RISE participant who completed the two-week virtual course and earned a free refurbished laptop in addition to full-time employment.
You can view the press conference in its entirely via this previously recorded livestream provided by WAVE 3 News. Our RISE program is mentioned at the 11:16 mark: